Chapter 132

“Generalities are intellectually necessary evils.”
—Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

After Rachel and I had made love Christmas morning and I took her home, I spent a quiet Christmas with my family. I was already up, so I went to the kitchen and made blueberry scones. Don’t get the wrong idea. I’m no great cook. It was a package thing. But they smelled good and about the time I was pulling them out of the oven, Pey came padding into the kitchen. She wrapped her arms around me and hugged tightly enough to drive the air out a little.

“Hey you! How’d you get so strong?” I noticed her arms were up around my lower chest instead of my waist. It still amazed me to see how tall the ten-year-old had grown.

“I work out. How’d you get so skinny?”

“I run.” We laughed. Compared to nearly any other time in either life, I was skinny. Six-one and 150 pounds. But it felt like a lie to say I run. I hadn’t had time for a good run in a month. My little morning outings with Livy and Nanette were barely enough to keep us all in shape. Of course, Livy was playing basketball, too.

I gave Pey a scone and a glass of milk and watched as the butter melted into the flaky goodness. I fixed my own and poured the first cup of coffee out of the pot I’d made. Mmm.

“I thought Santa delivered coffee and scones to the bedroom on Christmas morning,” Mom said as she and Dad wandered into the kitchen.

“Oh, you know, Mom. Santa always takes care of the children first,” I laughed. “Scones are just hot out of the oven. Come and eat.” I poured coffee for my parents as Mom got OJ out of the fridge. She handed Dad a bottle of champagne, which he managed to open without putting anyone’s eye out. Mom set out four glasses and poured them half full of OJ. Dad topped them off with champagne.

“Merry Christmas,” we all said as we raised our glasses.

That started a quiet day. Gifts were exchanged, we called Emily, and Mom cooked a huge meal that all turned out tasty. We weren’t frying turkey this Christmas.

In the afternoon, I called each of my girlfriends. Joan and Beca were in Chicago. Nanette, Brittany, and Emily were in Kansas. Donna was visiting cousins in Indianapolis. Livy had gone to Rachel’s house in the afternoon. Desi and her parents were getting ready for Fort Wayne PopCon the next weekend and I had agreed to help at the show on Saturday and Sunday. It was sort of Desi and my anniversary. Sophie, her mother, and her sister were all tipsy. A dozen other people were at their house and they were partying as only Cubans could. I laughed at Sophie’s antics for a bit and then we conferenced Brittany in so she could see the chaos in her home. She and Nanette would be coming home over the weekend.

I did something I found I rarely do these days. I played my guitar just to play it. I didn’t perform or rehearse. I just picked it up like an old friend and even played between turns while the family played Monopoly. It felt peaceful.

Another thing I hadn’t done for a while was have a good long run. Saturday morning, I raided the leftovers from Christmas dinner and packed a nice lunch to share with Donna. We hadn’t had snow yet, though the temperature was below freezing at night. The sky was bright and clear when I loaded in the truck and headed to her house. Maybe I would get some exercise other than running. I was humming Christmas carols as I pulled into her driveway.

“Honey, I’m home!” I called as I walked through Donna’s back door. “Merry Christmas! I brought food.”

“Jacob?” Donna’s voice came from the sun room. “What are you doing?” Her voice seemed strange and I turned to look from the kitchen into the sitting room. Donna wasn’t alone. Three women and a man sat with her, sipping coffee with a plate of cookies in front of them. They were all looking at me and glancing back at Donna. Whoever they were, it was obvious they had no idea who I was.

“Um ... Sorry, Ms. Levy.” I needed to remember how to treat her like a teacher instead of a lover. “I got carried away with Christmas spirit. I didn’t mean to interrupt your meeting.” I set the bag of food on the kitchen counter and saw Donna squeeze her eyes together. “Mom sent a care package of Christmas dinner leftovers for you since you were out of town yesterday. She said to be sure to tell you not to overheat the gravy or it will turn all lumpy. Would you like me to put it in the refrigerator for you?”

“That won’t be necessary, Jacob,” Donna said. It sounded like she was starting to breathe more easily. “I’ll take it from there.”

“Um ... I was going to take a run along the trails this morning. Is that all right?” I asked.

“Yes, of course. There’s a little mud when you cross the fence line, so watch your step,” she said. “Uh, when you’ve finished your run, why don’t you stop back and join us for something cold to drink. Say in an hour?”

“Thank you, ma’am. And uh ... Merry Christmas, everyone.”

I took off and headed down the long drive toward the road. An hour-long run was going to be more than just the mile loop through the woods. I settled into a swing pace that was about a minute a mile slower than my race pace. I just calmed my heart from the unexpected encounter and lost myself in the pace of the run. I remembered the first time Nanette had taken me out to run in this area and I’d gotten lost in the feeling and inadvertently ran ten miles. It had been at a gentle pace compared to what I ran now. It was difficult to slow down to a twelve-minute mile and felt like I was just jogging. Back then, it had been like flying.

I did eight miles before I got back to Donna’s driveway and headed out toward the woodlot. I saw two cars parked around the side of the house in front of Donna’s garage. No wonder I hadn’t seen them when I parked by the barn where I usually did and ran to her back door. I wondered if it was really a good idea for me to return to the house and face her visitors. And who the fuck were they? Why didn’t I know she was going to have company? At least I hadn’t shown up naked and yelled for her to join me in the shower. I did the last mile through the woods and jogged up the fencerow. I used the bumper of my truck to prop my leg on while I stretched. And generally delayed going back to the house to face Donna’s friends and her wrath. Eventually, there was nothing to do but do it.

I kicked my shoes off at the door and knocked as I stuck my head in. “Ms. Levy? It’s Jacob.”

“Come in, Jacob. There’s no sense being shy now,” she said. There were only two people with her now—a man and a woman. The two remaining cars outside, I assumed.

“Sorry I was so rude when I came in before,” I said. Be the meek high school student. Don’t make trouble for Donna.

“We had a good laugh,” the guy said. “We don’t often see our students in the wild.”

“Here’s a glass of tea, Jacob. Come sit and I’ll introduce you. Mr. Patterson teaches math and physics at North Huntington, two of your favorite subjects, if I recall. Ms. Reichert teaches German and Social Studies at Whitko. We started getting together on Boxing Day for coffee and cookies several years ago.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Ms. Reichert, Mr. Patterson.”

“Likewise, Jacob,” Patterson said. “Ms. Levy showed us one of your performances and explained she was working as producer for you and the young woman you play with. I know that the relationship changes when you work in that kind of environment. All my soccer players call me by my first name.”

“It’s true,” I said. “I didn’t mean to be disrespectful. I’ve never known my cross country coach as anything but Jock.”

“You run for Jock Anderson? Wait. Are you the guy who led Mad Anthony to the state 10k championship?” I nodded. “Well done. No wonder you were out here running this morning. How many miles did you put in?”

“Roughly ten,” I said. “My schedule has been a little tight this winter and I haven’t gotten many long runs in. Jock says he wants me training at ten miles so I have a better kick at 10k.”

“We were just discussing some interesting things Georgia has been following,” Donna said, turning to Ms. Reichert. “We were all pretty focused on the presidential race during the election this fall. It seems we might have missed some other interesting contests.”

“Really?” I said. “I’ve been focused so much on understanding National Service that it seemed like who was in power didn’t make much difference.”

“I understand how you would feel that way. The past four years have seen a shift to an even more nationalist government than we’ve ever been. It was a close race for president and the incumbent is likely to fight it all the way to inauguration. But what I was referring to were some state referendums. Most specifically what is happening in Washington and Massachusetts. As you might expect. Both states passed plural domestic partnership laws. Years ago, those two states were the first to legalize gay marriage. Everyone was warned then that it was a step toward making any kind of partnership legal and we’d have people marrying dogs before long,” Ms. Reichert said.